Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout

Re:Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout by danans on Thursday June 26, 2025 @02:40AM (#44384775)

Based on what I see in the photo in the article, PV array codes in Puerto Rico must be quite different from those in California, because the arrays seem to cover almost the entirety of the roofs. In California fire access codes [1] prevent the entire roof from being covered like in PV that.

1. https://energycodeace.com/site/custom/public/reference-ace-2...

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Re:Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout by blitzar on Thursday June 26, 2025 @03:49AM (#44385165)

Likely because they have building codes that prevent the construction of houses from matchsticks.

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Re:Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout by potato3732842 on Thursday June 26, 2025 @12:20PM (#44388859)

It has nothing to do with construction and everything to do with rainfall.

I can throw a lit road flare into my back yard and nothing will happen, because I don't live in a glorified desert. PR is an order of magnitude wetter than where I live.

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Re:Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout by neilknowsbest on Thursday June 26, 2025 @08:48PM (#44392888)

PR has a dry season when the island receives less rain, and there are dry regions that generally get less rain. In fact, there are sometimes forest fires [1].

Regarding construction, I've never seen a smoke alarm inside a residential building in PR. I would hazard a guess that this is allowed for concrete/cinderblock; presumably the roof thing is the same.

[1] - https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/seguridad/notas/incendio...

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Re:Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout by heliodor on Thursday June 26, 2025 @03:43AM (#44385140)

The vast majority of roofs in Puerto Rico are flat and the vast majority of buildings are made of cinder blocks and concrete.

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Re:Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout by pjc50 on Thursday June 26, 2025 @05:27AM (#44385660)

What's the rationale for that? It's not a rule in the UK. I'm not sure who's going to be walking on the roof of a building that's on fire.

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Re:Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout by KaiserPro on Thursday June 26, 2025 @06:10AM (#44385881)

looking at the linked doc, its so that the roof can easily be opened to let smoke out.

I'm not an expert, but I've not seen in the UK (well apart from thatched roofs) firefighters opening the roof to get access.

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